Luis Sandi

Luis Sandi Meneses was a Mexican musician, composer, teacher, and Broadway performer, born on February 22, 1905, in Mexico City, the only child of Genaro Sandi and María Meneses. He died in 1996. Rather than attending public primary school, Sandi received his early education from his mother's sister, Manuela Meneses, a public school teacher. From age six to fourteen, he lived in Tacubaya, a suburb of Mexico City.

At fifteen, Sandi enrolled at the National Conservatory of Music, where he studied violin under José Rocabruna, a Spanish violinist of considerable standing. His conservatory training also included voice lessons with Elvira González and composition study with Estanislao Mejía, born in 1882 and identified as a nationalist composer. Sandi additionally participated in a composition workshop led by Carlos Chávez, through whom he also studied instrumental conducting.

Sandi's conducting work included appearances with the Orquesta Sinfónica de México and the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional. In 1938 he founded the Coro de Madrigalistas, an ensemble whose ongoing influence shaped a substantial portion of his output in choral composition and arrangement. Among his most prominent compositions are the opera Carlota, with a libretto by Francisco Zendejas, and the ballet Bonampak. He also authored multiple books intended for music students.

Beyond Mexico, Sandi brought his work to the Broadway stage in 1939, appearing in the production Mexicana. His international engagement extended to membership in the International Music Council of UNESCO, a position he held from 1963 to 1966, as well as membership in the Consejo Interamericano de Música.

Sandi's compositional catalog spans instrumental, vocal, choral, operatic, and ballet forms. Instrumental works include pieces for solo guitar, violin, viola, violoncello, oboe, and various chamber combinations, among them a String Quartet from 1938 and a Quintet from 1960 scored for flute, clarinet, trumpet, violin, and violoncello. His orchestral output includes the symphonic works Sonora from 1933, Suite banal from 1936, and Segunda Sinfonía from 1979, as well as the ballets Día de difuntos, Coatlicue, and Bonampak. Vocal works for voice and piano set texts by writers including Amado Nervo, José Juan Tablada, and Ramón López Velarde, while choral works with orchestra include Gloria a los héroes and La suave patria, the latter also drawing on López Velarde. A second opera, La señora en su balcón, was completed in 1954.